Family Bingo Night - 16 February 2008
The almost-regular family bingo evening, a full year after the previous one, took place last Saturday. A really good turnout of families and friends from Brandeston and surrounding villages paid £253 in entry and ticket fees which was returned as prizes throughout the night.
Unlike last year, only one prize was shared thanks to the greater number of people in the hall. The first few prizes were of low value, while the total amount of money available was being worked out, but started rising just before the refreshment break. The final two prizes of the evening ended up being £15 for a line and a jackpot of £83 for a full house which was won by Mary Baker, pictured above with her winnings.
It’s an odd game, bingo; there are periods of boredom when none of the numbers on your bingo card appear to be in the box and there is no mark at all on your paper, while all the people around you seem to be marking their cards on every call. At some of those times, I would find myself staring at my card in such a trance that, when one of my numbers was actually called, I didn’t cross it off which does not help at all with winning a prize.
But then, for those who were concentrating properly, three numbers in a row would suddenly be on your card and you would be just one number away from a prize, Now the adrenaline kicks in and you feel you are bound to win - right up to the moment someone else calls out. Proof, yet again in your mind, that gambling just doesn’t pay.
Our new caller this year was Eve Crane who was helped greatly by us using the 100+ Club balls, significantly larger than the ones Fred had trouble with last year. Nevertheless, they still jumped out of the box for reasons known only to Eve and leading her to claim to always “have problems handling balls”.
As well as the refreshment break, there were free raffles in the form of Heads or Tails games with Ena giving her all and just failing on the last toss of the coin - see photo below.
Thanks to people buying refreshments, enough money was taken to cover expenses and provide £90 for the village hall.
Photos: MP&D
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